The 16 days of activism against Gender Based Violence (GBV) are scheduled to start today and will run until December 10.

The annual event is carried out to create awareness against violence especially on women and girls. It aims at eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls.

This year’s campaigns will be conducted under the theme; “Fighting violence against women and girls is everyone’s responsibility.”

Briefing journalists in Kigali on Monday, Jacqueline Kamanzi Masabo, the executive secretary of the National Women Council, called on all anti GBV stakeholders to partner and fight against the vice.

“Fighting GBV is everyone’s responsibility. We shouldn’t wait for big organisations or the government alone to act on it. This fight against GBV is not just a 16 days thing, but a continuous campaign that aims to end gender based violence,” she said.

“Everyone should stay watchful of any act concerning human trafficking. It should be our main concern due to its rapid increase, especially in neighbouring countries. We should fight it before it affects us,” Masabo noted.

According to Christiane Umuhire, the in charge of family promotion and children protection at the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion, Early Child Development Centres have been initiated to protect children from violence while their parents are away.

“Keeping children at selected centres decrease cases of violence against children while the parents are at work. We can only be able to fight human trafficking if parents ensure daily conversations with their children so that there are no secrets in case of child manipulation by traffickers,” Umuhire added.

“There’s no way a country can develop if women are left behind, fighting for their rights helps in the development of a country,” said Faustin Nyirinkwaya, the in charge of women empowerment at the National Women Council (NWC).

This year’s activism will begin with the NWC attending parents’ forums countrywide, in one village in each district, where they will impart information on preventing and solving effects of gender based violence.

They will also conduct radio and television talkshows to sensitise the public about GBV, creating awareness about human trafficking in institutions of higher learning, sensitising people about the government policy on GBV and other initiatives to promote women; for instance, the He-for-She campaign.